Abstract
After the handover of Hong Kong to China, a first-ever policy of "bi-literacy and tri-lingualism" was put forward by the Special Administrative Region Government. Under the trilingual policy, Cantonese, the most dominant local language, equally shares the official status with Putonghua and English only in name but not in spirit, as neither the promotion nor the funding approaches on Cantonese match its legal status. This paper reviews the status of Cantonese in Hong Kong under this policy with respect to the levels of government, education and curriculum, considers the consequences of neglecting Cantonese in the school curriculum, and discusses the importance of large-scale surveys for language policymaking.
Highlights
The adjustment of the language policy is a common phenomenon in post-colonial societies
Hong Kong is a city with a similar language situation to Singapore, and it is worth evaluating the success of Hong Kong’s language policy in education
When it comes to school teaching, Hong Kong society at large commonly believes that English and Putonghua teaching are more important than Cantonese teaching even if Cantonese is our mother tongue (Ming Pao 1997a, b)
Summary
The adjustment of the language policy is a common phenomenon in post-colonial societies. 2.2 At the Educational Level It is the governmental policy to promote bi-literacy and tri-lingualism in Hong Kong, and Cantonese, English and Putonghua are of equal status in principle When it comes to school teaching, Hong Kong society at large commonly believes that English and Putonghua teaching are more important than Cantonese teaching even if Cantonese is our mother tongue (or the first language) (Ming Pao 1997a, b). Evans et al (1998) interview a good number of students, teachers, parents and business people for rating students’ ability in English, when the mother-tongue education was implemented for the first year Those researches certainly have emphases of their own, but none of them involves the functions of Cantonese, English and Putonghua in different circumstances separately. English is always on the top priority of language usage as Hong Kong is an international centre of trade, finance and communications
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